Prevalence of alarms in intensive care units, and its relationship with nursing staff levels

Background The average number of alarms per patient on each day in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was very high with poor specificity, high sensitivity and high false positive rate. The large number of false alarms has caused healthcare professionals to turn down the volume of audible signals, adjust the alarm setting beyond limits that are safe and appropriate for the patient, and ignore or even deactivate alarms, resulting in sentinel events and patient deaths. The objectives of the present study were to examine the prevalence of ICU cardiac and technical alarms and the relationship between that prevalence and available nursing staff levels. Methods The study collected all cardiac and technical alarm data from the bedside physiological monitor through the central monitoring system at the nurses' station, over a five-week period. The prevalence of these alarms and the correlation with different shifts of duty was analysed. The relationship between nursing staff levels and the number of these alarms was also analysed. Results There was a positive correlation between the number of cardiac and technical alarms per bed per hour in three different shifts (Night and Morning, Morning and Afternoon, and, Afternoon and Night: All p-value < 0.001). The effect of these alarms on the present shift will affect the number of alarms in the subsequent three shifts. Besides, the number of cardiac and technical alarms is not related to the nursing staff levels. Conclusions This study describes the prevalence of cardiac and technical alarms from a different perspective, by examining the prevalence of physiological monitor cardiac and technical alarms in ICUs (but not their sound amplitude) and its relationship with nursing staff levels, the finding against many people thinking that the cardiac and technical alarms should be fewer when the nursing staffing level is high in the unit.published_or_final_versio

Anthropometric Measurement of Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit

Background Visual estimation is the usual method that many healthcare professional use to estimate the body weight of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but this method has been shown to be significantly inaccurate. This study aimed to explores the feasibility of using fibula length to estimate the acute body weight of patients admitted to an ICU. Methods The study collected all ICU records in which patient’s body weight was estimated by the equation: Males: 153.1 – (0.26 x age) – 11 + (1.05 x fibular length) Females: 153.1 – (0.26 x age) – 22 + (1.05 x fibular length). The body weight(BW) then estimated by: BW= 20 x [estimated body height (in metres)]2. The degree of agreement between the estimated body weight by anthropometric measurement methods and the actual recorded body weight in the patient’s medical record within the four weeks immediately before ICU admission were assessed by the Bland-Altman plot. Results Paired sample t-tests showed there were statistically significant differences between the patient’s estimated and actual height and weight (p-value = 0.0001 for both). Conclusions The study found the use of fibula length alone had a similar percentage of bias when compared with visual estimation by healthcare professionals to estimate the actual body weight of the patients admitted to ICU.published_or_final_versio

Profile changes of putative periodontal pathogens after non-surgical periodontal treatment

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The role of attentional focus on walking efficiency among older fallers and non-fallers

This is the final version. Available on open access from OUP via the DOI in this recordResearch Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China

The use of sublimable chlorotricarbonyl bis(phenylimino)acenaphthene rhenium(I) complexes as photosensitizers in bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic devices

A series of sublimable substituted chlorotricarbonyl bis(phenylimino)acenaphthene rhenium(I) complexes was synthesized and used in the fabrication of photovoltaic devices. The hole and electron carrier mobilities of these complexes are in the order of 10-3 to 10-4 cm2 V-1 s-1. Heterojunction devices with CuPc/complex/C60 (CuPc = copper phthalocyanine) as the active layer and bulk heterojunction devices with complex:C60 as the active layer were fabricated. The rhenium complexes function as photosensitizer in the devices, and exhibit optical absorption in the region between 500 and 550 nm within which other components in the device do not absorb. Other devices with hole transport materials, exciton blocking materials, and different active layer thickness were also fabricated. Variation of substitution groups in the ligand did not show significant difference in device performance. The best power conversion efficiency of the devices was measured to be 1.29% under illumination of AM1.5 simulated solar light. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.postprin

Synthesis and characterization of self-assembled monolayer and bilayer carboxyl-group functionalized magnetic nanoparticles

This journal issue contains selected papers from the 2012 International Magnetics (INTERMAG) ConferenceMagnetic nanoparticles functionalized with carboxyl-group have considerable potential to be used as bio-labels due to their conjugation abilities with proteins. Here, we synthesized the iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with carboxyl groups through self-assembled monolayer coating using citric acid and self-assembled bilayer coating using fatty acids. Their dimension, hydrodynamic size, surface property, and magnetic behavior were characterized through transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometry. We also confirmed the binding ability of these nanoparticles with bovine serum albumin on thin gold film. © 2012 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe IEEE International Magnetics Conference (INTERMAG 2012), Vancouver, BC., 7-11 May 2012. In IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 2012, v. 48 n. 11, p. 3299-330

Genetic diagnosis of severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (Dravet syndrome) with SCN1A mutations in the Hong Kong Chinese patients

Epilepsy is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders. The advent of molecular genetics brings unprecedented advancement in diagnostic molecular pathology and reduces over-reliance on traditional clinical classification. Severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy or Dravet syndrome is a catastrophic infantile-onset epilepsy. We report two unrelated Hong Kong Chinese patients with this condition presenting with febrile seizures, epilepsy with different semiologies, psychomotor retardation, and recurrent status epilepticus. Two different mutations were characterised, viz NM_001165963.1: c.680T>G; NP_001159435.1: p.I227S and NM_001165963.1: c.3953T>G; NP_001159435.1: p.L1318R (novel). Genetic characterisation conveys a definitive diagnosis and is important from the perspective of selecting anti-epileptic drug therapy and genetic counselling.published_or_final_versio

Novel Hybrid Au/Fe3O4 Magnetic Octahedron-like Nanoparticles with Tunable Size

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Differential regulation of cytokine-and phorbol ester-induced activation of nuclear factor kappa B by Pseudomonas aeruginosa pyocyanin in human airway epithelial cells

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Continuous entecavir for treatment-naïve Chinese chronic hepatitis B in the real world setting: the six-year results

This journal suppl. entitled: 2014 DDW AbstractBACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data on uninterrupted entecavir for treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) beyond 5 years. METHODS: Treatment-naive Chinese CHB patients were treated continuously with entecavir 0.5mg daily in the real world setting for up to 6 years. The cumulative rates of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) normalization, DNA undetectability, virologic breakthrough (>1 log HBV DNA increase from the nadir) and genotypic resistance to entecavir were determined. HBV DNA levels were measured by Roche Taqman real time PCR assay (lower limit of detection: 20 IU/mL). Resistance profile was determined by line probe assay (LiPA, Innogenetics NV, Gent, Belgium) for patients ...postprin